Punishing Bandits
In truth, she really wanted to get washed and changed inside her space, but this place was inconvenient. Thinking a bit, she gave up and made do with getting washed up here. When they reached Hai Zhou, she would get her rest at that time.
The old woman paid close attention to the matter of an attack by the bandits at night, as she repeatedly advised Feng Yu Heng to quickly set out the next morning. Things would be better once she left. Feng Yu Heng knew that they were not bandits, but she had no way of explaining to the old woman. She just nodded and thanked her for her kind intentions and did not say anything else. It was just that the three-year-old boy had been given a shock and had been crying the entire time. No matter how his mother coaxed him, it did not work. He ended up crying for two hours, and there still did not appear to be any signs of stopping. Gradually, he began to lose his voice.
Feng Yu Heng returned to her carriage, and when she returned, she held a bamboo cup in her hand that had been filled with milk that she had taken from her space. She had the young woman heat it up and feed it to the young child. Sure enough, after the young child drank something, he stopped crying. The young woman endlessly expressed her thanks and said that the family did not have any money for such a nice thing. She just waved her hand and expressed that she did not mind such things.
The old woman saw that she was kind hearted and felt apologetic. Overnight, she went to her neighbors and managed to scrape together half a bowl of corn flour. Going over to the stove, she made a corn congee. It was very thin, but it was already the best that the villagers could provide.
Feng Yu Heng had Huang Quan and Wang Chuan give some to the people outside, and they used the bowls that they had brought. Each person could only get half a bowl, but in any case, it was warm. It was pretty decent. She thought a bit. There was plenty of rice and noodles in her space. When they left, she could secretly leave some along with some silver to express her thanks.
They passed the night like this, and Wang Lin began to arrange for them to set out once more early the next morning. The old woman urged them to quickly leave; otherwise, they might end up getting attacked once more if they could not get out of the mountains.
Feng Yu Heng did not want to delay it any longer, leaving behind a few cups of milk for the child. She then brought Xiang Rong and the others back to the carriage. The old woman and the young woman sent them out of the yard, and the young child repeatedly thanked Feng Yu Heng. He was quite a sharp child. But before she could even climb into her carriage, something very unexpected happened. Bandits really came from the mountains!
This time, Feng Yu Heng really had run into bandits. No matter how useless she was, she was still able to differentiate between bandits and specialty soldiers. It was just that these people wore more common clothing, but from their appearance, they did not have much of a bandit aura. They were very ferocious, as they charged straight toward the small yard from the mountain. It was such that Huang Quan thought that they had come to mug them, as she said to Ban Zou: “It’s just these few people. You can handle it on your own, right? They’re looking down on us too much. If they want to mug us, they should send more people.”
Indeed, there were a total of six bandits. The leader was a man with a large beard, and he had a manly appearance. But the people did not pay attention to Huang Quan. They did not even stop in front of Feng Yu Heng’s group of carriages. They just went straight to the young woman’s side, and the bearded man grabbed her arm, loudly shouting: “Come with me!”
The young woman was frightened and let out a loud yelp. The young child began to cry and repeatedly screamed: “Mother, mother, let go of my mother.”
But the person had already been grabbed by the bearded man. How could she be let go, as the bearded man loudly shouted: “What are you crying for? Us great ones came to save you! With just this shoddy little village that’s so exceptionally poor, you would’ve starved to death if us great ones didn’t come to save you!” While speaking, he looked at the young woman then turned to say to his comrades: “What you guys said was right. In the nearby areas, only this young woman looks good. She’s the one!” He then reached out and pinched her cheeks, saying with a satisfied tone: “Pretty good, so smooth and tender, if it was not for the child, it really would be quite easy to believe that she was an unmarried girl. Young lady, you can be considered lucky to have been chosen by us brothers. Today, you will be coming with us men into the mountains. In the future, you will be our leader’s wife, and you will give birth to sons and daughters! Don’t worry, as long as you obediently listen to orders, your poor relatives down in this village will be taken care of. I guarantee that they will not be lacking for food or clothing.” After saying this, he very magnanimously threw a bag of silver to the old woman, “30 taels will be used to buy your daughter-in-law. It’s enough. Let’s go!” After saying this, he dragged her away.
The young woman struggled and screamed. Unfortunately, not a single family dared to make an appearance to help. Her mother-in-law grew anxious and repeatedly begged for her daughter-in-law to be let go, but how could the bandits possibly listen to her? Losing her temper, she rushed forward and bit the bearded man’s arm. This caused the bearded man to let go, but the pain caused him to become fierce. Raising his foot, he kicked out and kicked the old woman back a number of steps. She crashed into the tree next to the entrance and coughed up a mouthful of blood.
“Mother!” The young woman rushed over and let out a loud cry; however, seeing that the bandits were about to make a move on her son, she went to grab her son. Protecting both sides, she was very troubled.
Feng Yu Heng could not bear to continue watching and gestured for the hidden guards to make a move. How could six bandits be opponents for hidden guards? There was practically no room for them to fight back, as they were beaten to their knees by the hidden guards in just a few moments. The bandits looked quite dissatisfied, as the bearded man loudly shouted and hollered: “Passersby, you keep going down your open road, and we will continue with our narrow path. Although we have claimed the mountains as our own, we have not come down to do anything to you. You don’t show any gratitude. Instead, you take action against us. Do you follow the morals of Jianghu?”
Feng Yu Heng snorted coldly, “Morals of Jianghu? That is something followed by the people of Jianghu. We are not people of Jianghu. Why should we follow those morals? You’ve claimed the mountain as your own, yet you’re the one in the right? Stealing away a common woman in broad daylight and injuring an old woman, are Da Shun’s laws just decorations in your eyes?”
“Shit!” The bearded man continued to cause a scene, “Da Shun’s laws? We’re bandits. Who has ever heard of bandits following the law? You say that you are not someone that is part of Jianghu, thus you do not abide by its morals. In the same way, we are not law-abiding citizens, thus we don’t need to abide by Da Shun’s laws!”
“Oh?” Feng Yu Heng glanced at him, “You can choose to not abide by the laws because you are not a law-abiding citizen? Very well, then it seems that it will be fine if I have you killed. Bandits, right, everyone knows that they can be killed.”
“You dare!” The bearded man stared wide-eyed, “If you dare to touch a hair on my head, our leader will definitely bring the brothers down from the mountain grind you into mush!”
Thump!
Huang Quan raised her foot and kicked the bearded man’s chest. This kick used 70 percent of her internal strength and nearly killed the bearded man, as he coughed up a mouthful of blood. He swayed a couple times but, with the support of the hidden guards, he did not fall over. He then looked at Huang Quan with a look of horror. This girl actually attacked to hurt people without any warning, and she had attacked so viciously. What exactly was this group of people?
“Grinding you into mush is more like it!” Huang Quan looked at the bearded man with disdain, “You want to be a bandit with just your bit of skill? Don’t think that you can scare people just because you’re ugly. Who doesn’t know how to wildly flail about? You don’t have the slightest bit of internal strength. This grandaunty could tidy up 100 of you.” She was not exaggerating in the slightest. This sort of failure really would not be a problem.
Feng Yu Heng stopped paying attention to the six people and advised the hidden guards to keep an eye on them, as they remained kneeled near the entrance to the yard. She then went to check on the old woman’s injuries.
The old woman was collapsed under the tree and had coughed up blood. She was already unconscious. Feng Yu Heng walked over and checked her pulse. She then felt the chest where she had been kicked and determined that there were no broken bones, which allowed her to let out a sigh of relief; however, she still could not determine if there was any damage to the internal organs. After people grew old, the internal organs would be extremely fragile. She could not guarantee that Chinese medicine would definitely save this person. At the very least, it would not take effect immediately.
She thought for a bit then returned to her carriage. Xiang Rong had already come out of the carriage to watch the liveliness. Being alone in the carriage, she pulled out the medicine kit that she had kept inside the carriage then pulled out an infusion kit and stethoscope from her space. Only then did she return to the old woman’s side.
After a series of examinations, she was able to determine that there was no damage to the internal organs. This was a good thing, but soft-tissue damage was a foregone conclusion. Feng Yu Heng had the old woman carried into the room, and she followed them in. Removing the old woman’s upper garments, she began to perform some acupuncture to deal with the extravasated blood. Thinking a bit, she pulled out a small infrared lamp to heat up the old woman. Patients could wake up as a result of the external stimulus, thus she gave the old woman a painkiller that had an anesthetic property to avoid causing any damage stemming from the pain.
Not long after the medicine entered her mouth, the old woman woke up in pain; however, her mind was not very clear. She was still in a daze and felt that her chest was hot; however, she did not know what was on her chest. Feng Yu Heng saw that she wanted to move and immediately said: “Granny, do not rush. I am helping treat your injuries. You were kicked by the bandits and coughed up a bit of blood. But there’s no need to worry. It’s fine. I have performed acupuncture to get rid of the blood that has spilled out. You will get better after resting for a few days.” Feng Yu Heng had always believed that using Chinese medicine as much as possible to treat older patients was best. Although Western treatments were quicker to act and get rid of the illness, there was a certain negative impact. Recovery from surgery was also a difficult hurdle. Older people could not endure that sort of trouble, and there were quite a few patients that had died on the operating table. In regards to the doctors of Hundred Herb Hall, she had taught them in this manner, having them determine treatments based on the patient instead of “one treatment fits all” that had been agreed upon.
The old woman heard Feng Yu Heng’s words and calmed down. She put away the lamp then helped cover the old woman with a blanket before letting the people outside enter the room.
She did not like having outsiders around when performing treatments. This was a rule that Wang Chuan and Huang Quan understood, thus they stood guard outside. Hearing that they could now enter, they quickly allowed the young woman in with the child to take a look. Seeing that there was nothing seriously wrong with the old woman, the young woman felt at ease and kowtowed to Feng Yu Heng and repeatedly gave thanks, especially since Feng Yu Heng had given her a painkiller. Now, there was not even a feeling of pain. It was truly very mystical.
Huang Quan said to the young woman: “Did you not hear that you were going to be their leader’s wife?! It can’t get more common than bandits kidnapping girls. There is nothing odd about it. How about we call those bandits in and ask them. Either way, they will be taken care of.” She looked at Feng Yu Heng. Seeing that her young miss nodded, she went out and had the hidden guards bring them inside.
The bearded man had already lost half of his life from the kick, and he was now being dragged in with his head down. He immediately saw the old woman that had visibly gotten better and could not help but feel shocked: “How did you get better so quickly? Could it be that there is a divine doctor here? Tell me, is there a divine doctor?”